Studying Crime Statistics Assignment

Chapter 16.2

Study the chart on the SMART Board. Answer the following questions:

1.  A crime clock illustrates the average frequency with which a particular crime occurs at the given time intervals. For example, the crime clock on the FBI’s website says one murder occurred every 32.3 minutes in 2008. This does not mean that someone was literally killed at that interval; it means that during year, given the number of murders that did occur, these murders averaged out to one every 32.3 minutes. How do you think they compiled this statistic? Explain.

Go to my Symbaloo board and click on the black tile labeled “FBI-Crime in the US 2012.” Then, when the page loads click on “Violent Crime” to answer the following questions:

1.  Using 2012 data found in Table 1A, how much change was there in each rate of the following areas from 2008-2012? Use rates as percentages and indicate +/-.

Crime / Rate in 2008 / Rate in 2012 / +/- % Change
Murder (6th Column)
Forcible Rape (8th Column)
Burglary (16th Column)

2.  Using 2012 data found in Table 4, how do the number of crimes in North Carolina compare to Virginia in each of the following areas?

Category / North Carolina / Virginia
Population (3rd Column)
Murder (6th Column)
Forcible Rape (8th Column)
Robbery (10th Column)

3.  Using 2012 data found in Table 8, what city in North Carolina had the highest number of murders? What was its population? What was the city’s murder rate? (Use Table 6)

4.  Using 2012 data found in Table 8, what city in Virginia had the highest number of murders? What was its population? What was the city’s murder rate? (Use Table 6)

5.  Click on National Data during 2012. Then, choose crime clock. Compare 201 data to the data in the chart on the SMART Board from 2008. What do you notice about crime in general in the last 5 years? Why do you think that is? Explain.